Humility-Security-Synergy

      For a year now I have been apprenticing under my Senior Pastor, Burt Campbell (check out his blog here: http://pastorburt.lifewithchrist.org/index.html). For the last 2 years I've felt a pull towards pastoral ministry in some aspect and last summer God asked me to take a proactive step towards learning and developing more of the skills that ministry requires. That step looked like the apprenticeship and allowing Burt to be mentor and teacher in my life. We are now drawing that time to a close and looking back over the year, I can't get my head around how much information we've absorbed, how many lessons I've learned - personally and ministerially - and how much growth God's worked in me since last summer. Having said that, I've much more growing to embrace!

      The bulk of my time with Pastor Burt has been spent studying and discussing the book The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, which has so challenged my world. Author, Steven Covey, lays out 7 habits/principles that, if embraced and implemented, empower us to become effective in every aspect of our lives. The 6th Habit is Synergy. This Habit is my favorite so far. Very challenging but so exciting! I've come to realize that I've got some work to do in order to say I'm good at Synergizing with with the people around me. Here's a couple of the things I need to have to make this work:

1. Humility. Lets face it, we all love to be right. We love to have the answer; the solution to the problem no one else can figure out. It's empowering and energizing! However, when we become so convinced that we can see every possible option and solution, and no one else has a valid idea, we kill the potential for Synergy and thus, brilliant, new capabilities. This is something I'm working on. I know I don't have all the answers, and there are minds that are so different and more creative than mine... I want their input. 

2. Security. Synergy requires a level of vulnerability; space for someone else to disagree with your idea, or even to say your point of view is wrong. If we can learn to operate on a level of security that is not threatened by other people's opinions, we would be surprised at the doors that would swing open! 

It also takes security on the part of the person challenging an idea or thought. Security looks like courage to express one's own thoughts or feelings, without having to ask for validity. We each have a say and different is ok. 

      So Synergy is one of my many goals. It's what I've been mulling over as of recent. The reason in writing about it came mostly from some confirmation by Subject-4-Change in the post: Where Do Ideas Come From? The Author writes, 

      "But is competition truly helpful in building community over the long haul? And if the goal of art (religion, education, science and even political diplomacy) is to benefit mankind and bring people together, what would happen if competition, attribution, and ownership were taken out of the process?"

A grand thought indeed. What would our world look like if we learned to Synergize? What could your life look like if you allowed Synergy some room to work? I like to think that unimaginable things would be accomplished.